About this work
Degas often experimented with technique. This picture was made with paint drained of its oil and thinned with turpentine, creating an effect similar to watercolour.

The woman, seated by a window against the light, looks serene. But the artist Walter Sickert recounted that this work was painted around the time of the siege of Paris by the Prussians. According to Sickert, Degas gave the model a hunk of meat as payment, ‘which she fell upon, so hungry was she, and devoured it raw’.
(Permanent collection label)

This work is on display
While we make every effort to ensure this information
is correct, displays are subject to last-minute changes.